French MEP refused entry into Canada

An MEP known for his opposition to the EU-Canada free trade agreement was held for six hours on Tuesday at a Canadian airport before customs denied him entry into the country.

José Bové, a French Green parliamentarian and a member of the assembly’s international trade committee, claimed on Twitter that “opponents of CETA are not welcome in [Canada],” after beingheld for questioning at the airport.

Bové was due to speak about the trade agreement at a public meeting Tuesday. It was organized by the Council of Canadians in Montreal.

Sujata Dey, a spokeswoman for the event organizer, said in a statement that Bové “was detained at Montreal airport for hours without any explanation, and he has now been notified that he must leave Canada.”

Canada does not allow individuals with a criminal record into the country. Bové was convicted in 1999 for destroying a McDonald’s restaurant in south of France. He has another conviction for wrecking a field of genetically modified corn in 2008. The MEP had been permitted to enter Canada on other occasions since the two convictions, once in 2002 and then in 2008.

“It is very suspicious that the Canadian authorities refused him entry,” Jean-Marc Desfihles, Bové’s parliamentary assistant, who is with him in Canada, told POLITICO. “He has served his sentences and possesses full civil rights.”

“It’s scandalous,” Desfihles added, “that he’s not let in at this particular point, where he was about to speak against the EU-Canada trade agreement.”

Bové got permission to go to an airport hotel on Tuesday night. He is expected to hold a press conference there at 10:30 a.m. local time (4:30 p.m. Brussels time) and travel back to France later on Wednesday.